


Two ways an engagement between Anahuarque and John Granby could have ended, and the one way it did

by astheradioplays



Category: Temeraire - Naomi Novik
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-23
Updated: 2013-12-23
Packaged: 2018-01-05 15:24:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1095603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/astheradioplays/pseuds/astheradioplays
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which there are years of happiness, years of resentment, and time spent with Little.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Two ways an engagement between Anahuarque and John Granby could have ended, and the one way it did

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Beatrice_Otter](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beatrice_Otter/gifts).



> Written for Beatrice_Otter for the 2013 Yuletide challenge, I hope you’ll enjoy it!
> 
> Many heartfelt thanks to my beta reader.

1.  
It had been a grand wedding, but as the ceremony went on, Anahuarque, Sapa Inca, could not help but remember that these were not her new husband’s customs; these were not his gods and what weight an oath sworn to them held with him she did not know. They had had a conversation about their marriage some days earlier, while their dragons were negotiating the gifts and terms. Apparently, Granby’s dragon had greatly exaggerated how much and how many the British government was willing to send, and some new negotiating was therefore necessary. She and Granby had walked slowly around the courtyard, quietly; yet still only two strangers.  
“You do not wish for this,” she had said. It was more a statement than a question, the realisation suddenly coming to her.  
“I do not,” he had replied at long last, “but I do know my duty and I will try to do right by you. Though I wish to make sure; you do know about my rank and my birth?”  
“I do. I do not place much value in what social standing you had in a country so far away. No, it is not significant here, in fact, it might even help you better understand your place in our court and our government.”

*

Their marriage bed remains cold and uninviting as time goes by, despite the fact that they both sleep there almost every night. Granby stays on his side of the bed and Anahuarque on hers, only a couple of inches apart but with two lifetimes and an ocean between them.

When it finally happens; it is a boy. A healthy boy, strong and fat. When he is just sixteen months old he becomes a big brother for the first time, and then for a second time just before his third birthday. The children are blessed with two loving and doting parents, though their father’s dragon looks at them with suspicion and grumbles whenever she thinks their father is spending too much time with them and not enough with her. Their father takes no notice and carries them on his shoulders, playwrestle with them on the ground and tells wonderful stories of a faraway place he calls “home”.

*

Anahuarque spends most of her time in council; loathe to relinquish control to someone else. Her husband spends his days idle, dividing his time between his dragon or with his children. Soon enough after their marriage rumours begin to circulate; Anahuarque is the leader of her people and she resents being one part in the gossip about her husband’s indiscretions. She knows that he served in his country’s armed forces and had circumstances been different, he might have had a place in her own, but she can not have someone she does not trust in such a position, so Granby’s idleness continues and so does his indiscretions.

 

2.

John Granby had always thought himself quite lucky with his lot in life. Had he had a choice he might have chosen to be of a different disposition, but as it were he was happy to serve in a field where marriage mostly wasn’t expected and with a man of the same tendency as well.

As he finds himself being wed to the Sapa Inca, an ocean away from his home and family, he had already abandoned most of his plans for the future, vague as they might have been. This was far from the future he had envisioned but he had made his vows and knew his duty, both to his new wife, his new people and to himself to make the best of an undesirable situation.

*

He was not as young as some of the others there and certainly not as young as some of the others they had chosen before, but neither Anahuaque or Granby valued youth the most. Furthermore, he had long, muscular legs and soft shoulder length hair that Granby favoured and was broad over the shoulders with a narrow waist as she preferred.

“I think we should keep him for a while”, she said to Granby later; after he had slipped from their bed and into the night. The only reply she got was a contented murmur.

*

The first child is a boy, the child is early and the birth hard, but he grows into a healthy babe soon enough. When he is just six months old the first of his two sisters is born. Unlike her brother, she arrives just on time and is strong, fat and healthy and soon gets a little sister of her own. This time the birth is more difficult than the others and it comes close to losing both mother and child. Granby prays to his god while the Inca pray to theirs and through some miracle both mother and child survive, although Anahuarque has to stay bedridden for a long time. There will be no more children.

Granby had never thought much about children when he was younger, of course he knew that he would have to manage one or two for the corps if he became a captain, but he never expected to see them grow up this closely. He speaks English with them and tells them stories from England and from his life. When they are old enough, he and Iskierka takes them flying and the sound of their joyful laughter quickly becomes one of his favourite sounds.

*

Anahuarque spends most of her time in council and she tries to do right by her people. History has a way to make good leaders greater and the bad leaders worse and Anahuarque wishes to be remembered as one who did her best. She plans ahead so that the country is ready for the years when the crops fail and sickness is abundant, for her people have suffered so much already.  
Granby starts working with the armed forces and while the other soldiers and officers are distrusting at first, he soon enough finds and earns his place among them, to the satisfaction of his wife.

In the evenings, he and Anahuarque sit together, either comfortable in silence or telling each other of their day while the children play on the floor.

*

John Granby had always thought himself to be quite lucky in life. Had he had a choice, his current situation was perhaps not what he would have chosen, but as he offered his arm to his wife so that they could walk together through the gardens, he would have readily submited that he was quite content.

 

3.

It had taken him a while to notice, too distracted by Granby’s face and too occupied not to let anyone notice. It hadn’t fully worked; he knew Chenery was mentally rolling his eyes at him, but then he had noticed the sleeve on Granby’s coat and he had paled, which, he told himself, was ridiculous – a captain of the Royal Arial Corps, paling at sight of a missing limb! – but at least Granby was there, and smiling. One needed only to look at Harcourt’s red and puffy eyes to see that it could have been much worse.

*

It was a story so wild, Little could hardly credit it, from the ship going up in flames until Granby’s almost marriage to the Sapa Inca and the arrival of Napoleon it was such a wildly spun tale it belonged more in a book or performed on a stage. Granby and Little had never made any promises to each other, but of all the ways Little might have imagined losing his lover, the latter being married to the Sapa Inca in South America was not one of them and he almost was overcome with mirth at the absurdity of it before he managed to get himself under control.

“Are you sorry about it, Granby?” Berkley was asking, “It would seem like a missed opportunity to better one’s social standing to some.”

“Believe me when I say I am not, I have seldom been as anxious in my life as I was while waiting for her to deicide.” Granby replied, glaring at Laurence at his suggestion of “completely terrified”.

*

“I had to tell Will,” Granby was saying quietly, “about my preferences.” He and Little were sitting alone a bit away from the others now, sharing a bottle to drink.

“How did he take it?” Little asked once it become clear Granby wasn’t going to say anything more, taking care to keep his tone neutral.

“Surprisingly well,” Granby answered, “to be honest he seemed more surprised that I could not…alternate…more than anything else.” He fell silent then, looking uncomfortable and started to fidget with his one hand, smoothing out non-existent wrinkles on his trouser leg.

“He knows about…I had to talk with Iskierka; she was as usual indiscrete and he overheard your name.” he managed at last. Little did not need to ask what the conversation had been about; he paled and felt the ground disappeared beneath him. Unlike Granby, there was no true and strong friendship between himself and Laurence. He liked Laurence well enough, and he fancied the sentiment returned by the man, but he could not feel a sense of security in the assurances of the man’s affection as Granby probably did.

“I do not think he will tell anyone,” Granby was saying in a rush, “he surely feels that it is not his place to do so. Furthermore, you did not make the confession to him yourself, and he takes a strange approach to things said that are not meant for him. It is a navy thing, I gather.”

Little nodded, but he could still feel an ice-cold lump in his stomach.

*

It was early morning. Little sat near Immortalis, using his bulk as a shelter from the wind as he watched the sailors prepare to set sail. The orders being given didn’t signify with him, but the work being done seemed efficient enough. He stole a glance at Laurence, who was sitting with Temeraire. He seemed to try keeping his face void of expression, but there was sadness in the line of his mouth.

“Berkley,” a voice said, though whatever followed was drowned in the noise from the sailors, and Little could see Granby making his way across the dragon deck. He put his hand on Laurence’s shoulder when he went pass, but did not stop. He caught Little’s eyes and gave him a small private smile, before settling down at Iskierka’s side.

Suddenly, there was a lull in the noise from the sailors and everybody seemed to be waiting for something; then wind filled the sails and a cheer went up as the Potentate started to glide over the water.


End file.
